Huddersfield Town manager Chris Powell admitted his side had failed to perform to the expected standards during Saturday's bitterly disappointing 3-0 defeat at Charlton Athletic.

In an even first half, Johann Berg Gudmundsson broke the deadlock with a sensational free-kick but the Terriers performance was slack thereafter and they were punished early in the second half when Tony Watt slotted home before sealing his brace with 18 minutes left.

And Powell was left to regret on an away performance which belied their recent form on the road as his defence struggled against the effervescent duo of Watt and Igor Vetokele.

“We were second best all day; we never got ourselves going,” he said.

“There’s no excuse – we just didn’t perform. That’s a shame, because we’ve earned good points on the road recently through good performances and today we let ourselves down.

“My team didn’t really reflect what I want from them and the players know they didn’t do themselves justice. We were below our normal standards today.

“The ground was packed today and these are the atmospheres the boys want to play in. However, it wasn’t really us today.

“We did work [Stephen] Henderson once or twice – he made two good saves at good times – but they looked dangerous. Their front two were lively and we never really got to grips with it over the course of the 90 minutes.”

In pictures: Charlton Athletic 3-0 Huddersfield Town

Powell was unable to draw many positives from his return to The Valley but felt his charges did show a response following the double substitution of Tommy Smith and Conor Coady, even if it did prove in vain.

“We all struggled today,” he explained.

“We looked at the side and introduced Tommy [Smith] and Conor [Coady] to try and inject a bit of energy. They did that to be fair, along with young Joe [Lolley], but it was all too little, too late.

“One of Henderson’s saves came at 2-0 but then four minutes later Charlton went up the other end and got their third, which really knocked the stuffing out of us.”